Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • Chapter 5 - Weathering the Storm: Adverse Climates in Medieval Literature

  • from Part I - Origins
  • Edited by Adeline Johns-Putra, University of Surrey
  • Book: Climate and Literature
  • Published online: 31 July 2019
  • Print publication: 04 July 2019, pp 76-91

  • Summary

    Literary representations of climate come in a range of forms, informed as much by culture as by physical conditions. The interregional applicability of climate motifs has implications for their dissemination, as narratives relying on specific environmental variables may tend to spread less widely unless they are read as accounts of the exotic. This chapter introduces responses to climate in medieval European literature by examining one motif at either extreme of the universality spectrum. Icelandic prose responds to Iceland’s short growing season by rooting many of its feuds in tensions over natural resources, with a prominent role for hay as the island’s most productive crop. At the other extreme, homiletic accounts of end-time climate describe conditions beyond anyone’s experience but made universally relatable by way of an analogy between world history and human ageing.